The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-04-29
GET OUT OF THE CITY.
OUCH is THE ADVICE OF THE POET
OF THE SIERRAS.

What Joaquin Miller Says of New York
The Vine-CIad Hills of the CarOlinas-
Life in the Sierras-ArizOna and New
Mexico.
Get out of the cities and stay out of the
cities. The cities of the United States are
too big entirely. l mean to say that our
population in the cities is fearfuly dis
proportionate to our population in the
country. To say nothing about the cold,
clear truth that neither genius nor great
judgment ever 6ourished in city with
out first drawing its milk from the coun-
try l beg you to compare England's
country population with her city populac
ton, and then ours. Take France ii you
like it better, or Germany. You will be
startled. But l have neither space nor
disposition to debate or cry out against
this cowardly disposition to hide away in
the commercial, pork packing cities f
America But will say this Of New
York, city know fairly well from some
years of residence there: never saw such
ignorant people anywhere on earth as the
people of New York. Yes, they read But
what do they read? The papers. And
the papers they read are the New York
papers. They simply read of themselves
their own SINS their own follies, their
ton of crimes, set and served as a break
fast dish by the brilliant men of the pens
Get out of that place and stay out OF 1t.
Get out of all such places. Get into the
country, into the lifted hills if you can.
1t is only little distance to the glorious
green and vine clad hills OF the CarOlinas
Send some one of your number down there
to see those fruitful and healthful hills,
and my word for it you will not willingly
I'll 70 do Ioo Ii1n of fOl lu
which makes up life in a great city. Get
out of those places with your children. No
English gentleman who can afford it will
leave his children to the follies and the
sins of a city. No wise man will, OF
whatever land. And so it is with warm
heart 1 should like to respond to this cry
which appeals to me from the cities for
homes and information about homes in
the west.
Frankly, then, I would first say go
down into the pleasant mountains Of the
Carolinas first because that is close by.
Get bit of land there if you like it, Get
it now. 1t will never be cheaper than il
is now. Next year it may be double its
present price. At least, inquire there
rather than of me. Do you know that
nearly all our grapes in the eastern states,
as well as elsewhere came from the Caro-
linas long ago? Do you know that the
Ul6O1Cdl uGTDS VI GIO OdEOlIudS JOOh OIAG
worlds prize in Paris? Do you know
that these silent and voiceless states
have given the world the only
new gem that has been named
since Christ was born? Go down and look
at these states. They are close by, and no
wild beast or wild man will dispute your
path. Go to Cherokee county. You will
find gold there. You will find plenty of
Cherokee Indians there still. have seen
IxN,.w
daughters of these brave people standing
in the water to the knees washing for
gold. Go down there and see these lands
first.
If you do not like it there, and can af
ford to come to the SierraS, why come
here and companion with the peaks. Only
get out of the cities. 1 repeat it for your
own good, for the good of the nation, gel
out of the city and stay out of the city,
But don't come to California with the
idea thatyou can be idle. There are too
many here who are possessed with that
notion already.
If you want a great future to be won
with great enterprise, go to Arizona and
settle on the broad fields of grass and take
your chances on finding water some
where down in the earth. l would say
the same thing of New Mexico. And /
advise either of those territories before
at your hand-the very same reason for
urging the Carolinas on your attention
before other places.
Let me say this, as traveller and man
who loves Mother Earth and makes him
self familiar with her: All lands are more
alike than you imagine. And wherever a
man has set his foot and found the land
of milk and honey he has remained. The
honey is in the possession of the other
oil rrrlaV MN
travel. Goodnessl didn't we go through
all this when hunting for gold here
long ago? How many an old miner will
turn to you now and testify that if he
only had staid where he was in some
mountain gulch, with pure air, pleasant
surroundings, he would have, all in good
time, had as much gold as he could carry
But no; it was always a little further
on. Oftentime it was far, far way. Now
it was Owens river, away in the south;
now it was Frazer river far in the north;
yet either place, as a rule, no better than
the nearest little gulch to our cabin door.
So, in settling, decide what you want to
do And decide first this: That no man
has any right to stay in city unless he is
bound by his duties to stay there. The
mean and selfish desire to stay in a city
for pleasure is about as low a desire as ]
can think of. Indeed, the selfish pursuit
of pleasure anywhere, or of any kind,
merely for pleasures sake, is unworthy
of any man. The pursuit of pleasure is a
woman's pursuit; and very weak order
of women at that.
AS said before, if it is big money you
want, and big work, large-brained enter
prise, take possession of Arizona. There
are no Indians there, as a rule. The news
paper must have its Indian story every
week. But there are no Indians to trouble
you there. l am almost in sight of Capt
Jack IS old lava beds here. And down at
the bottom of the beds are settlers who
have been there entirely undisturbed for
a quarter of a century.
Go to Arizona if you like. Leave your
guns and take your plows. l spent week
down there, as you all know. last spring,
when the Indian stories were fulLsize,
and rode far and wide looking at the
lands. And / always rode alone, and, of
course, unarmed.
But if you are leaving the city in search
of health simply, come here. Come here
n fIar zfo